Fr. Z’s annual rant about Ascension Thursday Sunday

We know with holy and Catholic Faith that what was not assumed, was not redeemed (St. Gregory of Nazianzus – +389/90).

Our humanity, both body and soul, was assumed by the Son into an unbreakable bond with His divinity.

When Christ rose from the tomb, our humanity rose in Him.

When He ascended to heaven, so also did we ascend.

In Christ, our humanity now sits at the Father’s right hand. His presence, there, is our great promise and hope, here. It is already fulfilled, but not yet in its fullness. That hope informs our trials in this life.

The liturgical celebration of Ascension by the Latin Church has become a little confused in recent years.

In the post-Conciliar calendar used with the Novus Ordo editions of the Missale Romanum for this coming Sunday we ought – in my opinion – to be observing the 7th Sunday of Easter. Ascension Thursday should fall, appropriately, on Thursday. However, by the same logical that dislocated Epiphany (“Twelfth Night”) from its proper place twelve days, appropriately, after Christmas, some years ago the Holy See allowed bishops to transfer the celebration of Ascension Thursday to the following Sunday.

I call this liturgical caper “Ascension Thursday Sunday”.

Those who are participating at Holy Mass with the 1962MR avoid all this. Ascension Thursday is, logically, on Thursday.

Since we should, when examining issues, pay attention to cult, code and creed, and since we have looked at the theological point of the liturgical observance of the Ascension (creed and cult) let’s look also at some law (code).

In the 1983 Code of Canon Law, can. 1246, Ascension Thursday is indicated as one of the few Holy Days of Obligation.

Nota bene: There are some dioceses where Ascension Thursday has not been transferred.

Among them are – I believe – Boston, Hartford, New York, Newark, Omaha, and Philadelphia. To be sure, look at your parish bulletin from last Sunday, check your diocese’s newspaper, call your local diocesan chancery, etc. In other words, do some homework if you are not sure.

You fulfill your obligation by going to Mass either Ascension Thursday or the Vigil of Ascension.

I have a separate post about fulfilling one’s obligation for Ascension Thursday when travelling, which may involve being in a place or being from a place where the Thursday obligation remains because Ascension wasn’t, in that place, transferred. Go HERE.

The bishops who did transfer the feast to Sunday were, I am sure, hoping to expose more people to the mystery of the Ascension of the Lord. Probably included in that calculation was also the notion that it is tooo haaard for people to go to Mass also on Thursday. “Mass twice in a week? Tooo haaard!”

I am no doubt under the the influence of having read so much St. Augustine. My present view of humanity suggests that when Holy Mother Church lowers expectations regarding the liturgy, people get the hint and lower their own personal expectations of themselves. They get the hint that the feast just isn’t that important. As a matter of fact, maybe none of this Catholic stuff, with all these rules, is that important. This is what happened with lowering expectations about Friday abstinence (hardly anyone pays attention to it anymore), going to confession regularly and confession all mortal sins, the Eucharistic fast, dressing appropriately for Mass, etc. etc. etc. If you change how people pray (or tell them they don’t have to) you change the way people believe. There is a reciprocal relationship between our prayer and our belief. Lex ordandi – Lex credendi.

I am left with the opinion that the option to dislocate such an important and ancient feast falls into the category of a Really Bad Idea™. As a matter of fact, it isn’t a Really Bad Idea™ just because it could undermine our Catholic identity, it is also a Really Bad Idea™ because it smacks of arrogant novelty.

The celebration of Ascension on a particular Thursday is rooted in Scripture. Celebration on Thursday reflects the ancient practice of the Churches of the East and West alike. We read in Holy Scripture that nine days, not six, intervened between the Lord’s physical ascent to the Father’s right hand and the descent of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. If Pentecost was the 50th day, seven weeks – as the ancients counted the starting day itself is included so you get 50 rather than 49), then Ascension Thursday was fixed at the 40th day after Easter.

The observance of Ascension Thursday was fixed from about the end of the 4th century. In the Latin West, St. Augustine of Hippo (+430) called it Quadragesima (“fortieth”) Ascensionis. In the Greek East, St. Gregory of Nyssa spoke of it in 388. That’s only a 16 century tradition.

And how, I ask you, is transferring Ascension Thursday to Sunday in conformity with the “spirit of Vatican II” as actually printed in the documents of Vatican II? Didn’t the Council Fathers in Sacrosanctum Concilium require that in the reform of the liturgy? Check our SC 23.

23. That sound tradition may be retained, and yet the way remain open to legitimate progress Careful investigation is always to be made into each part of the liturgy which is to be revised. This investigation should be theological, historical, and pastoral. Also the general laws governing the structure and meaning of the liturgy must be studied in conjunction with the experience derived from recent liturgical reforms and from the indults conceded to various places. Finally, there must be no innovations unless the good of the Church genuinely and certainly requires them; and care must be taken that any new forms adopted should in some way grow organically from forms already existing.

As far as possible, notable differences between the rites used in adjacent regions must be carefully avoided.

Even though that paragraph may refer more to the structure of Mass itself, would the “spirit” of such a requirement not apply to the observance of a feast with such theological import for the East and the West?

Eastern Christians haven’t transferred Ascension. What must the Easterners think of this Latin innovation?

But let’s be more positive.

With the third, 2002 edition of the Missale Romanum we have once again a Mass for the Vigil of Ascension. This wasn’t in the 1970 or 1975 editions.

Moreover, there are now proper Masses for the days (nine? six?) after Ascension until Pentecost, most having alternative collects depending on whether or not in that region Ascension is transferred to Sunday.

In the new printing of the 3rd edition there will also be an option for a longer celebration of the Vigil of Pentecost, in keeping with the ancient use similar to the Vigil of Easter, with various readings. There is a parallel between Easter and Pentecost for the sacraments of baptism and confirmation, which in the Latin Church were of old conferred in the same rite. But I digress.

Thank God for Pope Benedict and the provisions in Summorum Pontificum by which he emancipated us and expanded the use also of the pre-Conciliar liturgy.

Whether you prefer the older form of Mass or the newer, Pope Benedict is working to heal the rupture that took place after the Council in our worship of Almighty God.

The older use will exert – is exerting – a “gravitational pull” on the celebration of the newer forms and the whole Church will benefit.

His scriptis, Really Bad Idea or not we nevertheless conform our celebration of Ascension to the Ordo, the liturgical calendar, established for the diocese (or religious institute) for either the Ordinary Form or the Extraordinary Form.

56 Responses to Fr. Z’s annual rant about Ascension Thursday Sunday

In the Diocese of Portland, Maine, we will be celebrating Ascension Thursday Thursday. A few years back my lovely bride heard an elderly priest use his Ascension homily to complain that we should conform to the rest of the Church in the United States and move the feast to Sunday. Doesn’t seem to bother any of the young priests, which is a hopeful sign.

In the Diocese of Metuchen (NJ), the Holy day has not been transferred. The Holy Day of Obligation is still this Thursday, and I even read an announcement to the congregation concerning this before Mass started last Sunday.

I will be reading at 6:30 AM Mass on Thursday, which is cool that I will be able to fulfill my obligation before leaving for work. Never hurts to go to Mass before heading off for work. ;-)

Regarding the Ascension of the Lord, the ecclesiastical provinces of Boston, Hartford, New York, Newark, Omaha, and Philadelphia have retained its celebration on the proper Thursday, while all other provinces have transferred this Solemnity to the Seventh Sunday of Easter, June 1. If transferred, Thursday, May 29 is observed as an Easter Weekday.

So that includes the suffragan sees of those archdioceses. If I didn’t have obligations in town, I’d make a road trip to Nebraska on Ascension Thursday Thursday for Mass.

I, too, have ranted about this for years. In the dioceses in which I have lived, feasts such as the Ascension, Epiphany, the Annunciation, the Transfiguration, etc. have all been moved to the following Sunday. But perhaps the biggest annoyance is how the whole passion story is read both on Palm Sunday (because, I presume, too many people don’t attend on Good Friday) and Good Friday. And then there are the feasts they’ve dropped altogether, such as the Circumcision. I agree that it is all based on reduced expectations. Of course, if Mass were a more generally moving and aesthetically pleasant experience than the standard Novus Ordo, it would help make people more willing to attend during the week. But, alas, with feasts such as Holy Thursday come bonus amounts of bad music and ugly liturgy. Sometimes its enough to keep even me away.

On Thursday evening, May 29th at 7:00 p.m. the
Carolina Catholic Chorale will sing Johann Michael
Haydn’s Missa Beatissimae Virginis Mariae as sacred
music for a Latin Mass in the Extraordinary Form here
at St. Ann Catholic Church. The Chorale, directed by
Thomas F. Savoy, will be accompanied by a nine piece
chamber orchestra and organ. This exuberant work of a
young Haydn is fitting music for the joyful Feast of the
Ascension. The St. Ann’s Schola, under the direction of
Terese, will render the Gregorian chants of the day.
Come and join us for a worship experience of sublime
beauty in sight and in sound. For more information, call
518-878-5660 or email: carolinacatholicchorale@gmail.com.

We (my husband and I) are ranting/raging with you, Father.
This flood of novelties is watering down our Faith.

Why can’t our Bishops see the 40 days/years connection.
40 days of the flood
40 years wandering in the desert
40 days after Christ’s birth (Feb 2nd) Traditional Presentation of Jesus in the temple (also known as Candlemas day and/or the Purification of Our Lady)
40 days of fasting before Christ started his ministry to us
40 days of fasting for us from Ash Wednesday to the Resurrection (excluding Sundays)
40 days Ascension after the Resurrection
Who knows what other “40s” I’m missing but there is a symbolism established by Our Lord, Himself on these 40 day/year cycles.

Another thing that gets me is the Rosary changes (luminous mysteries):
150 psalms
150 Hail Marys in the Traditional Rosary.
But that’s another ball of wax.

The real question regarding “too hard” is for whom. The laity or priests? For if the laity are supposed to observe a weekday Mass obligation, that means the priests have to make provision, even a generous provision, of extra Mass(es) to accommodate them. AND preach about the grave necessity of attending said holy day Mass. In the current situation of priest shortages many priests are sorely overburdened. Yet that is the priesthood they have chosen and the cross they must bear. Generous offering of the sacraments and mercy and faithfulness in same have to be one of the hallmarks of a faithful priest. We should all pray that our priests may willingly and gladly seek more, rather than less, opportunities to offer the sacraments.

We have a priest who has found enough encouragement among parishioners to offer weekday EF Masses whenever he can fit them into his schedule when the church is free. Sometimes this can be as many as three times in one week–but usually one or two.

Thursday is one of those days! So we get Ascension Thursday EFand Ascension Thursday Sunday OF!

Trenton NJ is still Ascension Thursday. Thank goodness after some of the Looney Tunes that went on before in between +Ahr and the current ordinary +O’Connell, it somehow managed to stay where it belonged.

Father, you’re right of course that the Vigil of the Ascension is now celebrated in the NO as well as in the EF: unfortunately, it will be celebrated here as the Saturday evening Vigil mass, so that it will be the Saturday Vigil of Ascension Thursday Sunday.

In the Davenport Diocese, to my knowledge, there is no Ascension Thursday Mass and not in the TLM either. Many parishes in the rural areas do not have daily Mass. Sadly, one has no choice but to celebrate the Ascension on Sunday.

But what does the TLM calendar allow, if there is no TLM Thursday? Does it as well get transferred?

“And behold two men stood by them in white garments.
Who also said: Ye men of Galilee, why stand you looking up to heaven?
It is but Thursday, and a midweek day for men to work and make shekels
And ye are all far, far too busy with usury and goat-tending
To deign to come and worship the Risen Lord.
For lo: Heavenward thoughts and gatherings are allowed only on the Lord’s Day
So come back on Sunday and have a proper look upwards then.”

I am a member of St. Josaphat Ukrainian Catholic Church in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, and so not a Catholic of the Latin Rite. We thus celebrate ASCENSION DAY this coming Thursday. The local Latin Catholic diocese, that of Allentown, PA, has also retained the celebration of the Ascension on its proper date.

I have a question, for which I would solicit answers from those better informed than I am. Have any of the non-Byzantine Eastern Catholic sui juris churches altered the celebration of this feast in emulation of the silliness of “Ascension Thursday Sunday?” It would, perhaps, invidious to single out particular examples, but four non-Byzantine Eastern Catholic ritual churches (three of them with dioceses in the United States) “reformed” their rites in the 1970s or 80s, in a similar heavy-handed and unhistorical (“hermeneutic of rupture?”) way to what happened in the Latin Church in 1969/70 (prayers abbreviated, altered, or omitted altogether — and, of course, celebration “facing the people”). I wonder how far such “reforms” have gone in these calendrical choppings as well.

This whole moving thing has got to be sorted out, it is creating genuine disunity of practice. If for example I told you I couldn’t get to Mass on Ascension Day because of a Catholic Students Society event, which I’m cooking for, you’d probably be confused as to why the Society scheduled one the same time as Ascension Day Mass.
The answer, of course is that I’m the only one who attends EF and (since I’ve only just started) didn’t realise that there had been a date change (which our priest has quite rightly corrected), and I can’t imagine anyone else thought of it when planning the event! Actually, there’s a party game – I’ll ask and see how many “What are you talking about”s I get!

If I had more than two thumbs, I’d hold them all up for this great post. People are upset about the destruction of the liturgy, but something that was almost more destructive, in my opinion, was the destruction of the calendar. It left us with no pegs to hang our years on. And what made that even worse was giving up what little remained of the calendar to the lazy whims of the bishops, who could then decide that Thursday was Sunday.

I was thinking of going away this weekend, but with the liturgical silliness, it will probably be too much trouble, so I’ll just stay in New York, where we don’t subscribe to that particular form of silliness. We will have quite enough Ascension Thursday Masses on Ascension Thursday and quite enough Seventh Sunday of Easter Masses on Sunday.

Germany protected Ascension Thursday in a rather clever way, I think. When people started looking for Federal Holidays to axe, somebody got the bright idea to put Fathers’ Day on Ascension Thursday. Of course, they couldn’t cut Fathers’ Day from the calendar.

Which means that nobody transfers it to Sunday around here. I think the logic for Fathers’ Day is something like “Jesus went to visit his Father in Heaven and you should, too.”

while it is true that for some reason (perhaps alike the one you suggested) Ascension is the date for Fathers’ Day in Germany, the reason Ascension is a public holiday is that it is Ascension.

The thing is simply that we kept the idea of having holy days holidays… The other länder are worse off to a degree of course, but in mine, we have Christmas, St. Stephen, St. Mary, Epiphany, Good Friday, Easter Monday, Ascension, Pentecost Monday, Corpus Christi, Assumption and All Saints. Extra Bavariam non est vita, et si est vita non est ita.

[Technical point: The only “federal holiday” is Unity Day, and perhaps Memorial Day which falls on a Sunday. Ascension belongs to those holidays which, while they are observed in each state, are so as state holidays.]

Hence, the real solution would be that as Christian a nation as America should somehow get it done that at least the ecumenically undisputed holidays, to which Ascension belongs, ought to be declared a public day of rest by public law.

That said, Italy is a Christian country too, and would Italian lawmakers ever have got the mere idea to put Ascension off the statute books if it hadn’t, somewhat, been suggested by the fact that the Church allows the transfer?

– The “traditional basis” for the transfer seems to be the idea that feasts dearly beloved by the populace, which are not holy days of obligation, get an “external celebration” on the following Sunday. But then they would be celebrated on their own day too, and the Sunday would be commemorated and its Gospel would be read in fine.

On the other hand, laxing an obligation on a hdo that is not a public holiday is a thing that may have good reasons – the traditional notion of a holiday included that there be no work. Coming to think of it, wouldn’t it be worth the thought that, if the State won’t make the holiday public at the Church’s bidding, the Church herself could require Christian entrepreneurs to close down and Christian employees to at least request vacation from their employers? (Not suggesting that at a moment when the Church doesn’t require it such as now, it would be a sin not to do so.)

Of course one other problem in this area is the idea that “on Ascension we celebrate nothing but easter” and that somehow preachers are not wont to – I shall not say believe, that’s none of my business, but – require their audience to believe that the event described in Acts 1 actually took place.

In the UK, where the bench of bishops has been in to anything that undermines tradition, we have had feasts transferred, including those celebrated by Anglicans. The notoriously secular BBC usually (we shall see tomorrow) broadcasts an Ascension hymn before the 7 am news on the appropriate Thursday.

I notice that the Universalis ap. does not give the alternative.

One casualty of these transfers, especially in May / June, is the coherence of the new Lectionary, so beloved by progressives.

There are Catholic Churches that celebrate Ascension Thursday on Sunday?
I’ve very surprised to hear this – never heard of such.
I could see if a parish or mission only had a priest on Sunday moving Ascension or other Holy Days to Sunday, but not in a regular parish.

The whole Washington, D.C., area has succumbed to the transference of everything they can transfer. However, this calendar lists a number of celebrations of the Traditional Latin Mass on Ascension Thursday in the Maryland and Virginia suburbs.

The good thing about these feasts being transferred is that it is permissible to celebrate Mass in the EF on those dates. We normally have either a Missa cantata on these feasts. Tomorrow we are actually going to have a High Mass. This is only possible because two other priests from the diocese are free to come along as they are not celebrating the Ascension until Sunday.

One thing I always notice is that our Masses on feast days which have been moved, is the attendance is very high. Only a small minority come because they love the EF – the majority come because they want Mass on the feast day!

(England and Wales) EF Mass tomorrow in many locations, but most EF and all OF Masses on Sunday will also be that of the Ascension. Fortunately, since I shall attend the Dominican form tomorrow, and Roman on Sunday, there are some liturgical variants.

What I object to most is that the liturgical calendar becomes even less attached to any sense of reality: Christ goes up to heaven on the 40th day, but we have to wait until the 43rd. So why not move Christmas, so inconveniently falling on a weekday most years? And how annoying to have Easter on different dates each year.

Religion is ‘just for Sundays’ in our busy age, but don’t expect any effort on any other day. I was genuinely shocked when I was told that many Catholics were simply ignoring holydays of obligation. This is the real reason that the easy way out has been chosen (or imposed).

Interestingly clergy of all shades of opinion are still annoyed about this foolish imposition which was sprung on us a few years ago with no consultation: all objections ignored to date and no sign of any revision. We will never become holy by endless short cuts and the easy life.

Sadly, even great churches like St. John Cantius in Chicago has fallen victim to this. The Cantian talk about Ascension being a movable feast and say even in their Tridentine Sunday masses the Ascension mass.

My diocese seems to not be willing to take responsibility for transferring Ascension Thursday to Sunday. On the website, one reads:
“At their November 1991 meeting, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops decided that whenever January 1, the Solemnity of Mary Mother of God, or August 15, the feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin, or November 1, the Feast of All Saints, falls on a Saturday or a Monday, the obligation to attend Mass is lifted. Also, the Ascension of Our Lord, which falls on a Thursday, has been transferred to the following Sunday. However, parishes are to continue to observe these holydays by scheduling one or more Masses at a convenient time so that people who wish to participate are able to do so.”
One would think that a bishop might have the honesty to explain that >he< made the switch and why.
Oh well.

Rochester Diocese has Ascension Thursday on Thursday, and this was the practice under the previous bishop.

An interesting note, the Amish folks I have doing some work will not be working tomorrow as the Ascension is a holy day for them. Around where I am, the Amish close their businesses for the day and they will gather as a family group, spending the day together and may have church, (the Amish I know they are having a wedding!), or go on a extended family outdoor outing. Either way it is a day of rest and “visiting.”

Here in West Virginia, our situation is rather bleak. Our bishop is one of the many who has transferred the feast of the Ascension to the 7th Sunday of Easter. To top it off, the TLM situation in the diocese (we only have 1 diocese for the whole state) is not too good, with only a handful of priests here knowing how to say the older form of the Mass, so (unfortunately) an Extraordinary Form Mass for Ascension Thursday is near impossible for us.

In a true case of Liturgy Science Theater 3000, for this reason the pastor at one church around here decided to read the Gospel for the 7th Sunday of Easter last week instead of the 6th Sunday for this very reason.

I think I will go celebrate Ascension Thursday properly at the local Byzantine parish instead.

I couldn’t agree with you more. However, this situation has left me in a bit of a pickle. Is it permitted, in a diocese that has transferred the feast to Sunday, to celebrate the feast on Thursday in the Ordinary Form? I suspect not, since this seems to be active defiance of the priest’s (arch)bishop. If one cannot celebrate the Ordinary form of the feast, and thus relegates himself to the Extraordinary Form alone for the Ascension, he must do so also for the 7th Sunday of Easter, which likely will rouse the rabble from their peaceful dormancy to combat the “raddy-traddy” pastor.

P.S.: could we say Ascension Thursday celebrated in the Extraordinary Form is the best Throwback Thursday ever?

I also attended Holy Mass this morning in the Novus Ordo and, good and holy priest notwithstanding, no mention AT ALL that today is Ascension Thursday. Not even in his ad hoc homily, which is always extremely faithful to sound Catholic doctrine. Sad.

Why is Ascension Thursday so momentous and so singular an event in the history of the human race? Quite simply, because prior to this day in the history of Man after Adam’s Sin and Fall, no human being (other than the God-Man Himself) had ever entered Heaven, that Blessed abode where alone souls can experience the Beatific Vision of God.

Ascension Thursday is the first day in Human History after The Fall that Man literally had the gates of heaven opened for Him.

On this day, all those righteous souls – Patriarchs, Prophets, and Saints of the Old and New dispensation or covenant who had died prior to this day, were released from the Limbo of the Fathers (also known as “The Bosom of Abraham”, by Christ on the Cross to the Holy Thief who became Saint Dismas it was called “Paradise” and is also called also “Hell” in the Creed whereby it is stated that “Christ descended into Hell” before His Resurrection) by Christ Himself and triumphantly entered Heaven with Him.

It is also the day that the believers on earth received the Great Commission – from which the word Missa, or Mass – is derived, to preach the Gospel to All Nations, baptizing them in the name of +The Father, +The Son and +The Holy Spirit.

On Ascension Thursday, not Ascension Thursday Sunday!

In the spirit of the the Great Commission, and the Missa, I hope to spread this bit of the Gospel through Fr Z’s grace (aka his blog) … here are some scriptural meditations on this Feast from Bishop George Hay of late 1700s Scotland in his book (a real gem) “The Sincere Christian Volume 1, Chapter 8 pages 86-88 – this book is available FREE on-line at https://archive.org/details/worksgeo01haygiala ):

Q. 16. Had none of the ancient saints gone to heaven at their death ?
A. They had not; and this is expressly declared by Jesus Christ
Himself, who, in His conversation with Nicodemus, says, ” No man hath
ascended into heaven but He that descended from heaven, the Son of
Man, who is in heaven,” John, 3:13.

Q. 17. Are we not told in Scripture that Elijah was taken up to heaven
when he left this world ?
A. As all the places beneath us in the bowels of the earth go by the
general name of Hell, so, in Scripture language, all the places above
us go by the general name of Heaven. Hence St Paul tells us that he
was ” taken up to the third heaven,” 2 Cor. 12:2 which shows that
there are different places above that go by that name. Now the most
noble of all these is that glorious heaven where God shows Himself in
all His majesty and beauty to the blessed ; for the Scripture tells us
that Christ, at His ascension, ” is set on the right hand of the
throne of Majesty in the heavens,” Heb. 8:1; “at the right hand of
God,” Rom. 8:34. Of which throne He Himself says, ” To him that shall
overcome I will give to sit with Me in My throne, as I also have
overcome, and am set down with My Father in His throne,” Rev. 3:21.
Before which throne St John “saw a great multitude, which no man could
number, standing in the sight of the Lamb ; ” and adds, that “they are
before the throne of God, and serve Him night and day in His temple,
and that they shall no more hunger nor thirst, neither shall the sun
fall on them, nor any heat ; for the Lamb, which is in the midst of
the throne, shall rule them, and lead them to the living fountains of
water, and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes,” Rev. 7:15.
Now that this heaven of heavens is above all other places that go by
the name of heaven, St Paul assures us when he says that the place to
which Christ ascended was “above all the heavens,” Eph. 4:10. When,
therefore, our Saviour declares that ” no man hath ascended into
heaven ” before Him, He means the highest heaven, where God is seen
and enjoyed by the blessed ; where He Himself, as man, always was, in
this sense, that He always enjoyed the Beatific Vision, by reason of
His union with the Divine nature; but Elijah, and also Enos, were only
taken up to some of the lower heavens, where they shall remain till
the last days, when they shall come again and be put to death by
antichrist, but where they do not enjoy the Vision of God.

Q. 18. Why had no man gone to that heaven where God is seen and
enjoyed, before Christ?
A. Because the gates of heaven were shut to man by Adam’s sin, and
could not be opened to us till the price of our redemption should be
paid, which was the Blood of Jesus shed upon the Cross.

Why don’t the Novus Ordo parishes switch Christmas Day to July 5, to extend the 4th of July weekend? Someone mentioned the Diocese of Metuchen NJ, where I live. UUUUgggghhhh. That Bishop has created LGBT counseling in a state where it is illegal to talk people out of being homosexual in counseling sessions. I wouldn’t be so boastful that they still have Ascension Thursday, on Thursday. Metuchen is like a protestant Diocese.

Is it permissible, under Summorum Pontificum to celebrate Ascension Thursday on the transferred Sunday using the 1962 Missal?
(This will, incidentally, be my second Mass and first High Mass as an altar boy).

I suggest a compromise. Mass on Thursday is the Mass of the Ascension. Mass on Sunday is the Mass of the Sunday with a commemoration of the Ascension (learning from the EF). [How about learning from the EF and using that Mass of Sunday after Ascension?] The relevant authority can decide whether or not the Thursday is a day of Holy obligation and may decide if readings of the Ascension replace those proper to the Sunday if pressing pastoral factors indicate.

I’m baffled that in Italy and in the Vatican Ascension Thursday seems to celebrated on the following Sunday. Yet there was not a published “morning homily” from the pope on that Thursday. I would have thought that the Vatican would properly observe the holiday, even while conceding that the bishops could move the celebration.

Search Fr. Z’s Blog

Search for:

CHRISTMAS SHOPPING? Please, always come here first!

Enter Amazon through my search box and I will get a small percentage of what you spend. (Pssst - Can't see the search box? Turn off your "ad-blocker" for this site!)

Amazon.com WidgetsPS: I added an Amazon Search Box for the UK at the bottom of the blog page. Copy and paste titles I mention into those boxes and - BAZINGA! - results appear.

“This blog is like a fusion of the Baroque ‘salon’ with its well-tuned harpsichord around which polite society gathered for entertainment and edification and, on the other hand, a Wild West “saloon” with its out-of-tune piano and swinging doors, where everyone has a gun and something to say. Nevertheless, we try to point our discussions back to what it is to be Catholic in this increasingly difficult age, to love God, and how to get to heaven.” – Fr. Z

CLICK and say your Daily Offering!

"We as Catholics have not properly combated (the culture) because we have not been taught our Catholic Faith, especially in the depth needed to address these grave evils of our time. This is a failure of catechesis both of children and young people that has been going on for fifty years. It is being addressed, but it needs much more radical attention... What has also contributed greatly to the situation is an exaltation of the virtue of tolerance which is falsely seen as the virtue which governs all other virtues. In other words, we should tolerate other people in their immoral actions to the extent that we seem also to accept the moral wrong. Tolerance is a virtue, but it is certainly not the principal virtue; the principal virtue is charity... Charity means speaking the truth. I have encountered it (not speaking the truth) many times myself as a priest and bishop. It is something we simply need to address. There is far too much silence — people do not want to talk about it because the topic is not 'politically correct.' But we cannot be silent any longer."

Paypal Donation

"Where priest and people together face the same way, what we have is a cosmic orientation and also in interpretation of the Eucharist in terms of resurrection and trinitarian theology. Hence it is also an interpretation in terms of parousia, a theology of hope, in which every Mass is an approach to the return of Christ."

"In those situations where homosexual unions have been legally recognized or have been given the legal status and rights belonging to marriage, clear and emphatic opposition is a duty. ... If all Catholics are obliged to oppose the legal recognition of homosexual unions, Catholic politicians are obliged to do so in a particular way, in keeping with their responsibility as politicians." CDF 2003

One of the most dangerous errors is that civilization is automatically bound to increase and spread. The lesson of history is the opposite; civilization is a rarity, attained with difficulty and easily lost. The normal state of humanity is barbarism, just as the normal surface of the planet is salt water. Land looms large in our imagination and civilization in history books, only because sea and savagery are to us less interesting.
— C. S. Lewis

Some words of wisdom…

The more vigorously the primacy was displayed, the more the question came up about the extent and and limits of [papal] authority, which of course, as such, had never been considered. After the Second Vatican Council, the impression arose that the pope really could do anything in liturgical matters, especially if he were acting on the mandate of an ecumenical council. Eventually, the idea of the givenness of the liturgy, the fact that one cannot do with it what one will, faded from the public consciousness of the West. In fact, the First Vatican Council had in no way defined the pope as an absolute monarch. On the contrary, it presented him as the guarantor of obedience to the revealed Word. The pope's authority is bound to the Tradition of faith. … The authority of the pope is not unlimited; it is at the service of Sacred Tradition.

"The Catholic Church is an institution I am bound to hold divine—but for unbelievers a proof of its divinity might be found in the fact that no merely human institution conducted with such knavish imbecility would have lasted a fortnight."

For contemplation…

"Latin is a precise, essential language. It will be abandoned, not because it is unsuitable for the new requirements of progress, but because the new men will not be suitable for it. When the age of demagogues and charlatans begins, a language like Latin will no longer be useful, and any oaf will be able to give a speech in public and talk in such a way that he will not be kicked off the stage. The secret to this will consist in the fact that, by making use of words that are general, elusive, and sound good, he will be able to speak for an hour without saying anything. With Latin, this is impossible."

- - Giovanni Guareschi

Support them with prayer and fasting.

Click for Car Magnets

Help the Sisters. They have a building project. Get great soap (gifts, etc.) while helping REAL nuns!

Great data SIM and device for travel.

Leave VOICE MAIL for Fr. Z

Nota bene: I do not answer these numbers or this Skype address. You won't get me "live". I check for messages regularly.

WDTPRS

020 8133 4535

651-447-6265

Let us pray…

Grant unto thy Church, we beseech
Thee, O merciful God, that She, being
gathered together by the Holy Ghost, may
be in no wise troubled by attack from her
foes.
O God, who by sin art offended and by
penance pacified, mercifully regard the
prayers of Thy people making supplication
unto Thee,and turn away the scourges of
Thine anger which we deserve for our sins.
Almighty and Everlasting God, in
whose Hand are the power and the
government of every realm: look down upon
and help the Christian people that the heathen
nations who trust in the fierceness of their
own might may be crushed by the power of
thine Arm. Through our Lord Jesus Christ,
Thy Son, who liveth and reigneth with Thee
in the unity of the Holy Ghost, God, world
without end. R. Amen.

Yes, Fr. Z is taking ads…

A great hymnal…

Mystic Monk Coffee also has TEA! UPDATE LINK

Because it matters what children read…

I carry one of these super-strong rosaries in my spare mag pouch! The Swiss Guards have them too!

The Swiss Guard have these rosaries!For the story clickHERE and HERE (esp. 18:00)

Because you don’t know when you are going to need to move fast or get along without the supermarket…

My Wish Lists

Main Wishlist Kindle WishlistAudio WishlistHam Radio ListNEW

Food For Thought

“The legalization of the termination of pregnancy is none other than the authorization given to an adult, with the approval of an established law, to take the lives of children yet unborn and thus incapable of defending themselves. It is difficult to imagine a more unjust situation, and it is very difficult to speak of obsession in a matter such as this, where we are dealing with a fundamental imperative of every good conscience — the defense of the right to life of an innocent and defenseless human being.”

A morsel for thought…

"If your work is strong enough for someone to hate you, it's strong enough for someone to love you. The middle is what you should fear."

- Sean McCabe @seanwes

For your consideration…

"One of the most dangerous errors is that civilization is automatically bound to increase and spread. The lesson of history is the opposite; civilization is a rarity, attained with difficulty and easily lost. The normal state of humanity is barbarism, just as the normal surface of the planet is salt water. Land looms large in our imagination and civilization in history books, only because sea and savagery are to us less interesting."

- C.S. Lewis

More food for thought:

“I expect to die in bed, my successor will die in prison and his successor will die a martyr in the public square. His successor will pick up the shards of a ruined society and slowly help rebuild civilization, as the church has done so often in human history.”

Francis Card. George

Fr. Z’s stuff is everywhere

Help support Fr. Z’s Gospel of Life work at no cost to you. Do you need a Real Estate Agent? Calling these people is the FIRST thing you should do!

They find you a pro-life agent in your area who commits to giving a portion of the fee to a pro-life group!

"It will never be known what acts of cowardice have been committed for fear of not looking sufficiently progressive."

Charles Pierre PéguyNotre Patrie, 1905

"If I ought to write the truth, I am of the mind that I ought to flee all meetings of bishops, because I have never seen any happy or satisfactory outcome to any council, nor one that has deterred evils more than it has occasioned their acceptance and growth."

St. Gregory Nazianzus
ep. 131 - AD 382

“We will conquer your Rome, break your crosses, and enslave your women. If we do not reach that time, then our children and grandchildren will reach it, and they will sell your sons as slaves at the slave market.”

To set up a recurring, monthly donation via PAYPAL (even a small one) go to the bottom of this blog and look for the drop down menu! Do you want yet another alternative to PayPal? I have set up an account with
CONTINUE TO GIVE
Get a link to donate via CONTINUE TO GIVE using your smart phone.
SEND MESSAGE:
4827563
TO:
715-803-4772
They take a larger percent taste, but they are an alternative.

I remember benefactors in my prayers and periodically say Mass for your intention.

This catechism helped to bring Fr. Z into the Catholic Church!

Be a “Zed-Head”!

Fathers, you don’t know who might show up! It could be a “big fish” of one sort or other…

And... GO TO CONFESSION!

“And how we burned in the camps later, thinking: What would things have been like if every Security operative, when he went out at night to make an arrest, had been uncertain whether he would return alive and had to say good-bye to his family? Or if, during periods of mass arrests, as for example in Leningrad, when they arrested a quarter of the entire city, people had not simply sat there in their lairs, paling with terror at every bang of the downstairs door and at every step on the staircase, but had understood they had nothing left to lose and had boldly set up in the downstairs hall an ambush of half a dozen people with axes, hammers, pokers, or whatever else was at hand?... The Organs would very quickly have suffered a shortage of officers and transport and, notwithstanding all of Stalin's thirst, the cursed machine would have ground to a halt! If...if...We didn't love freedom enough. And even more – we had no awareness of the real situation.... We purely and simply deserved everything that happened afterward.”

What people say…

"Rev. John Zuhlsdorf, a traditionalist blogger who has never shied from picking fights with priests, bishops or cardinals when liturgical abuses are concerned."

- Kractivism

"Father John Zuhlsdorf is a crank"
"Father Zuhlsdorf drives me crazy"
"the hate-filled Father John Zuhlsford" [sic]
"Father John Zuhlsdorf, the right wing priest who has a penchant for referring to NCR as the 'fishwrap'"

- Michael Sean Winters

"Fr Z is a true phenomenon of the information age: a power blogger and a priest."

- Anna Arco

“Given that Rorate Coeli and Shea are mad at Fr. Z, I think it proves Fr. Z knows what he is doing and he is right.”

- Comment

"Let me be clear. Fr. Z is a shock jock, mostly. His readership is vast and touchy. They like to be provoked and react with speed and fury."

- Sam Rocha

"Father Z’s Blog is a bright star on a cloudy night."

- Comment

"A cross between Kung Fu Panda and Wolverine."

- Anonymous

Fr. Z is officially a hybrid of Gandalf and Obi-Wan XD

- Comment

Rev. John Zuhlsdorf, a scrappy blogger popular with the Catholic right.

Support Military Chaplains!

Click to donate

Food For Thought

“Men are qualified for civil liberty in exact proportion to their disposition to put moral chains upon their own appetites. . . . Society cannot exist unless a controlling power upon will and appetite be placed somewhere; and the less of it there is within, the more there must be without. It is ordained in the eternal constitution of things, that men of intemperate minds cannot be free. Their passions forge their fetters.”

More stuff…

Archives

ENTRY CALENDAR

Do you use my blog often? Is it helpful to you?

If so, please consider subscribing to send a monthly donation. That way I have steady income I can plan on, and you wind up regularly on my list of benefactors for whom I pray and for whom I periodically say Holy Mass.

Some options

Admin Stuff

The opinions expressed on this blog do not necessarily reflect the positions of any of the Catholic Church's entities with which I am involved. They are my own. Opinions expressed by commentators in the comments belong to the commentators.